Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor,”activist Cornel West said the “the vicious legacy of white supremacy” and a “redistribution of wealth upwards” has left African-Americans the victims of poverty.

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West said, “We do have to begin with the system. Certainly the internal challenge of black self-love, black self-respect of sustaining a family, sustaining community with jobs, with a living wage with decent housing, quality education but you can’t overlook the vicious legacy of white supremacy … the legacy of it I’m talking about the legacy of white supremacy.”

He continued, “I am a revolutionary Christian who looks at the world through the vantage point of the weak and the vulnerable. So it’s not a matter of isms. I want to make sure each person made in the image of God is able to live a life of decency and dignity … you can’t do it when 40 percent of your children black or brown living in poverty…. we have to eliminate poverty.”

“You have got 1 percent of the population have 42 percent of the wealth. They used to have 20 percent. That’s redistribution of wealth upwards. upward, upward,” West said.

West asked, “What evidence do you have in terms of the free market functioning in such a way that inequality is reduced? You don’t have evidence of that.”

“The history of Irish brothers and sisters in America is, what? Tied to the public fear, policemen, firemen, moving into mayorship, moving into politics … I want that for African-Americans, too. The same thing.”

“What Jesus said is what you do for the least of these you do for me,” he added.